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Recent research from the Association of Investment Companies suggests that 78% of investors plan to make use of their ISA allowance this year. 40% plan to use only the shares element , representing a 1% rise since last year, while just over a quarter plan to use both their cash ISA and investment ISA allowance, again representing a 1% increase on the previous year. more

A recent survey conducted by NS&I indicates that the demographic of ISA savers has undergone quite a few changes in recent years. A survey of over 1,200 UK adults revealed some interesting insights into the behavior of savers in the past few years. more

Guaranteed equity bonds 'misleading'

24 January 2008 / by None

Equity bonds being offered by National Savings and Investments (NS&I) have been branded "complicated and opaque" by the International Management Association (IMA).

The bonds, that are being described as offering "stock market growth potential with no risk to your capital" are in fact misleading, the group have said.

The IMA conducted research in which the values of these bonds were compared to the performance of three established UK tracking funds over a five year period.

The results showed that the guaranteed equity bonds were outperformed by the index trackers by between 2.9 and 3.7 per cent over each year.

Richard Saunders, IMA chief executive, said: "These findings are very significant. These products have been widely promoted in recent years as a risk-free way of getting a stock market-related return. In fact they offer the first but not the second."

He added that these type of bonds are an over-complicated way of obtaining the same returns that a good deposit account will deliver.

NS&I has announced that they will be cutting interest rates on several of its fixed rate savings by up to 0.50 per cent per annum.